Sarvesh Sangarya

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

#RoadToGold - Week 1

Sheesh! Has it been a week already?!
Feels like only yesterday, when I was powering on the TT rig at OMR (Old Madras Road).

So, how was week numero uno?

After returning from the hospital, I felt slightly comfortable knowing that I've been through this earlier. I opted for the non-surgical method of treating a clavicle (collarbone) fracture which involves wearing a clavicle brace for 6 weeks along with a hand sling for 3-4 weeks.

For the bone to heal properly, it is necessary to hold it in an outstretched position while also ensuring that it does not support any load.
The clavicle brace is an 8-shaped brace which goes around my shoulders and meets at my back.

Pros of a clavicle brace:
1. It holds the shoulders in a retracted position, aligning the collarbone rightfully.
2. It also opens up my chest, thus preventing Kyphosis.

Cons of a clavicle brace:
1. Armpits are constantly irritated. Every. Single. Second.
2. The degrees of freedom when I am asleep is restricted to 1.

I was mentally prepared to handle the discomfort, but what I had not anticipated was the crippling effect of a nerve being irritated at the junction where the two broken bits meet.
The first two nights can be described as walking through a landmine. A single wrong move or a slight unbalance in the weight distribution would fire up the dorsal horns immediately!

At one point, my eyes began to tear up involuntarily because of the pain! On a brighter note, I am confident I can go harder in future TTs and VO2 Max intervals, having reached a higher threshold of pain.

In the movie "Kung Fu Panda", Po-the Kung Fu Panda is tested in the temple and at one point, he has to maneuvre himself out of a thorny-mechanism-thingy mine field. This closely resembles my third night when an injury on my right hip flared up further diminishing my movement.

On the 4th day, as in life, things started to get better. Having lived in a fool's paradise, i.e., spending 20 hours a day on the bed, the previous three days I was determined to get more proactive and was searching for a source of motivation.

One of the greatest motives is fear and no 4 words scare a 20 year old more than, " Finite Element Methods (FEM) Examination"
This is closely followed by "We need to talk" and "You've broken your collarbone".

FEM is the most annoyingly difficult subject I've faced in the past 7 semesters and I am glad to have gotten it behind me. Here's to hoping that my prayers to the 330 million deities are answered and I clear the exam.

1 exam done. 8 more to go.

Until next week!

P. S. I apologise for the lack of photos. The blogger app is a pain to work with. I'll be launching my own website soon, wherein I promise to put in more pics, gifs and cat videos.